Lecture 7 Flashcards
What are the 2 main ethical considerations for writing?
- attend to the application of appropriate reporting strategies
-> researcher should tailor to diverse audiences + use language appropriate for target audience - compliance with ethical publishing practices
-> researcher must create reports which are honest, trustworthy, seek permissions, ensure material is not used for more than 1 publication, and dislose funders, citations
What are some issues that need to be dealt with when writing a qualitative research?.
- reflexivity
- audience
- encoding
- quotes
What is reflexivity and what are some strategies to increase it?
Reflexivity
1) = ethical and political self-awareness as part of own inquiry > acknowledging that researchers cannot be separated from their research
=> need reflection upon cultural, social, gender, class, personal politics, …
2) Reflect upon the impact of your writing upon your participants (Will they be offended, how will they see the write-up?)
3) reflect upon the impact on reader and how they may form different interpretations
Strategies
1) ‘position’ yourself in the writings
-> talk about experiences w the phenomenon
-> + talk about how these experiences impacted the researcher/shape their interpretation
2) writing reflexive comments during the study
-> may be positioned in different parts of the study eg. opening, methods discussion, personal comments throughout the study, …
Examine audiences during a qualitative study and the qestions that should be asked concerning this topic.
4 audiences:
1. colleagues
2. participants of study
3. policy makers
4. general public
Why need to identify?
- help inform choices during the writing process -> shape how the research report is structured
Questions?
* For what audience(s) is this study being written? What informs these choices?
* What am I hoping to achieve with this report to my audience?
* What writing structures would my audience expect?
* Are there other audiences who could benefit from my learning and knowledge?
* How might I structure my writing to fit other audiences’ needs?”
How might we encode a qualitative narrative?
Such encoding might include:
* an overall structure that does not conform to the standard quantitative introduction, methods, results, … -> researcher might phrase headings for themes in words of participants
* an impersonal, familiar, up-close writing style -> reader should find writing interesting
* level of detail that makes the work come alive
What are the 3 types of quotes?
- short, eye-catching quotes
-> easy to read, take up little space, stand out from narrator’s text + intended to signify different perspectives - embedded quotes
-> briefly quoted phrases within the analyst’s narrative -> prepare a shift in emphasis or display a point + allow writer to move on - longer quotation
-> to convey more complex understandings > need guid-into and guid-out of quote
What are the 2 writing structures of a qualitative research?
- overall structure
= overall organization of the report or study - embedded structure
= specific narrative devices and techniques that the writer uses in the report
What is the overall writing structure of a narrative study?
- Flexible and evolving processes
-> encouragement to write studies that experiment w form
-> unwilling to prescribe a thightly structured writing strategy - suggest maximum flexibility in structure - Three-dimensional space inquiry model
-> text that looks backward (past), forward (future), inward and outward (personal and social conditions (conditions in environm w other peopl feelings/intentions, …)+ situates within space - Story chronologies or temporal or episodic ordering of information
- Reporting what participants said (themes), how they said it (order of their story), or how they interacted with others
- connection between data collection, procedures, analysis and forms/structure of writing report
-> eg. thematic analysis => presentation of several themes
-> eg. structured approach where indv tells a story => “fully formed narrative”
-> eg. study foced on interrogation between speakers => focus on direct speech and dialouge
What elements constitute a “fully formed narrative”
- A summary and/or the point of the story
- Orientation (the time, place, characters, and situations)
- Complicating action (the event sequence, or plot usually with a crisis or turning point)
- Evaluation (where the narrator comments on meaning or emotions)
- Resolution (the outcome of the plot)
- Coda (ending the story and bringing it back to the present)”
What is the embedded writing structure of a narrative study?
- Epiphanies
-> =interactional moment and experiences that mark people’s lives - Key events or plots
-> key e- of plot = emplotment (=The assembly of a series of historical events into a narrative with a plot) - Metaphors and transitions
-> transitions? inserted through words, phrases, questions, time-and-place shifts
-> foreshadowing = frequent use of narrative hints of things to come or of events/themes to be developed later - Progressive–regressive methods
-> = when a biographer begins w a key event in a participant’s life + works forward/backward from that event OR zooming in/zooming out - Threads across multiple narrative accounts
-> by use of reduction downwoard: researcher looks for common threads/elements - Themes or categories
-> recommended to have a theme guide the development of the life to be written based upon preliminary knowledge/review of the entire life
=> need to write at the reductionist boundary: (reduction downward): researcher looks for common threads or elements across participants - Dialogues or conversations
What are epiphanies and what are the 4 types?
= interactional moments and experiences that mark people’s lives
4 types
1. the major event that touches the fabric of the individual’s life
2. the cumulative or representative events or experiences that continue for some time
3. the minor epiphany, which represents a moment in an individual’s life
4. episodes or relived epiphanies, which involve reliving the experience
What is the overall writing structure of a phenomenology?
- Structure of a “research manuscript”
-> very specific
-> including?
1. intro and statement of topic/outline
2. review of the relevant literature
3. conceptual framework of the model
4. methodology
5. presentation of data
6. summary, implications and outcomes - The “research report” format
-> describing procedures to collect data and steps to move from raw data to general description of experience + review of previous research + theory pertaining to the topic + implications for psychological theory/application - Themes and analytic analysis start with the essence; engage with other authors; use time, space, and other dimensions
What is the embedded writing structure of a phenomenology?
- Figures or tables reporting essences
-> sketching essence through paragraphs, figures or tables, … - Philosophical discussions
-> goal? to educate through discussion about phenomenology and its philosophical assumptions - Creative closings
-> closing which speaks to essence of study + inspiration to you in terms of value of knowledge and future directions of professional personal life
What is the overall writing structure of a grounded theory?
-> iterative process !
- structure w grounded theory study components
-> RQ, literature review, methodology, findings section, final discussion section
OR
-> analytical story, on conceptual level, specify rleaitonship among categories, specify the variations and relevant conditions, consequences, … - Results of open, axial, and selective coding
-> section on open codes, diagram of theory (axial coding) + discussion about each component in the diagram + section on theoretical propositions (= tying the categories) - Focus is on theory and arguments that support it
-> allow ideas to emerge as theory develops + revisit early drafts + ask Qs about theory + construct argument about importance of theory, …
What is the embedded writing structure of a grounded theory?
- Extent of analysis
! narrative report varies based on the extent of data analysis - Propositions
-> stating propositions or theoretical relationships > in “discursive form OR narrative form - Visual diagrams
-> presentation of theory in visual model
-> makes use of axial coding ! - Emotions, rhythm, rhetorical questions, tone, pacing, stories, evocative writing
-> use of mood/emotions into theoretical discussions + straigthforward language + use of rhytm -> to make writing more accessible to reader
What is the overall writing stucture of an ethnography?
- Types of tales
1. realist tales: direct, matter-of-fact portraits of studied cultures w no info on how portraits were produced (impersonal viewpoint)
2. confessional tale: focus on researchers fielwork experiences (first person viewpoint)
3. impressionistic tale: personalized account ot the fieldwork case in dramatic form > combo of confessional and realist (first person viewpoint)
- critical tales: focus on soc, eco, pol, … issues
- formalist: build, test, generalize and exhibit theory
- literary tales: researchers write like journalists + fiction-writing techniques
- told tales: joint production by fieldworkers and participants
- Description, analysis, and interpretation
-> = 3 components of a good qualitative research
-> description: “what is going on here” (within culture)
-> analysis: highlighting findings, reporting procedures, identify patterns, compare case w know case, …
-> interpretion: involved in rhetorical structure -> interpreting findings wtihin context of researchers experiences and larger scholarly body - Thematic narrative
-> = story analytically thematized, but often in relatively loose ways -> constructed out of series of thematically organized units of fieldnote excerpts and analytical commentary -> inductively from main idea/thesis
-> e-? - intro to grab attention + link his/her interpretation to wider issues of scholarly interest
- setting and methods -> entry into, participantion, adv, disadv, …
- analytical claims -> use of “excerpt commentary units”
- conclusion
What are some different types of tales that can be used to write the overall structure of an ethnography?
- realist tales: direct, matter-of-fact portraits of studied cultures w no info on how portraits were produced (impersonal viewpoint)
- confessional tale: focus on researchers fieldwork experiences (first-person viewpoint)
- impressionistic tale: personalized account of the fieldwork case in dramatic form > combo of confessional and realist (first-person viewpoint)
- critical tales: focus on soc, eco, pol, … issues
- formalist: build, test, generalize, and exhibit theory
- literary tales: researchers write like journalists + fiction-writing techniques
- told tales: joint production by fieldworkers and participants
